this is my interpretation of the song

Anna Stesia

remember, Prince is a self-admitted sex addict so before you think I'm on drugs… read this entire post with that in mind (and yes there are numerous concerts where he declares that)

Also… Prince passed away from his drug addiction, that's a fact

The song could be about

Anna Stesia, a girl who's name is Anna Stesia if you take it literally

But Prince was a master of metaphors leaving it open for numerous interpretations…

So I think…

Anna Stesia is a metaphor for a 'HIGHER POWER’ or cure for sexual addiction

But you can only spell the name of a song one way…

And we all know Prince loved homonyms…

so the genius of this song is he leaves it open for another interpretation

Meaning he could have spelled it…

Anesthesia

And what the song could also be about, is numbness/drugs/addiction

so I'll give the double entendre interpretation of the song

Prince could be begging a higher power/cure (Anna Stesia) to 'ravish and craze' him as well as to 'liberate his mind' = by feeling fulfillment and salvation without giving into temptation, in this case sexual temptation

Or Prince begs for Anesthesia (drugs) to liberate his mind from his loneliness from his sexual addiction

My Lyrical breakdown on Anna Stesia first:

Have you ever been so lonely that you felt like you were the only one in this world?

--Prince is lonely in his sexual addiction

Have you ever wanted to play with someone so much you’d take any boy or girl?

--So lonely he’s bisexual and indiscriminate about the boy or girl he chooses

Anna Stesia Come to Me, Talk To Me, Liberate My Mind

--spelled this way, Anna Stesia is a metaphor for a cure to his sexual addiction to save him

Tell me what you think of me, praise me, craze me, out this space and time

--asking for salvation and cure

If he spelled it Anesthesia, it would be him begging for drugs to escape his loneliness from his sexual addiction

'Between white and black, night and day,

-- ‘White’ means being sober (sexually), ‘Black’ means perverse sexual desire, ‘night’ means dark or evil, day means light or ‘good’

Black night seemed like the only way,

--‘Black night’ therefore is evil, perverse sexual obsessions/compulsions

so I danced!

--meaning he quenched his sexual thirst, he performed some sort of ludicrous sexual act in the ‘black night’

Music late nothing great no way to differentiate’

--he slept with a girl or a boy in the "black night", but it wasn’t special, discovering life isn’t fun giving into lust/temptation

‘so I took a chance’

--so now he wants to take a chance and connect with God

‘Gregory looks just like a ghost’

--Gregory = a metaphor for Prince’s sexual addiction, or if he spelled the song "Anesthesia" Gregory would be a metaphor for drugs. and since it’s a ghost it means that just when he thinks he is free of his sexual temptations and compulsions or drugs...

‘Then a beautiful girl the most’

--a sexy fly girl whose outer sexual appearance commands his attention

‘wets her lips to say’

--performs a sexually provocative maneuver attracting Prince to her

"We could live for a little while if you could just learn to smile’

--we could temporarily resist sexual temptation if you could learn to LOVE without sex/lust being involved

‘You and I could fly away, fly away’

--we can have spiritual orgasms together

Anna Stesia come to me

Talk to me, ravish me

Liberate my mind

Tell me what you think of me

Praise me, craze me

Out this space and time

‘maybe I can learn to love the right way, the only way’

--to show love to someone by doing something to make them happy other than performing a sexual act to fulfill every sexual temptation

I mean the right way, I mean the only way

Perhaps you could show me, baby (show me, baby)

--Prince is asking the beautiful girl to show him the way to love

Anna Stesia come to me, Talk to me, ravish me, Liberate my mind

Again, Anna Stesia is a metaphor for a 'HIGHER POWER’ or cure from his sexual addiction

or if it’s Anesthesia = drugs

and Prince begs the power (Anna Stesia) to 'ravish and craze' him as well as to 'liberate his mind' = by feeling fulfillment without giving into temptation, in this case sexual temptation

Maybe, maybe, maybe I could learn to love

If I was just closer to somethin' (closer)

Closer to your higher self

--Prince talking to a higher power

I don't know

Closer to heaven (Maybe) closer to God (closer to God)

--unsure of how to find the cure to his sexual addiction

Save me Jesus, I've been a fool

--begging Jesus for forgiveness for all of his sins

How could I forget that you are the rule

--Turning to Jesus/Spirituality for forgiveness

You are my God, I am Your child

--really begging for forgiveness for his sins

From now on, for you I shall be wild

--making promises to change his ways

I shall be quick I shall be strong

--more promises

I'll tell Your story, no matter how long (no matter how, no matter)

--he'll read the bible

We're just a play in Your master plan

Now, my Lord I understand

(I understand)

--he really doesn't understand what to do about his sexual addiction

LOVE IS GOD, GOD IS LOVE, GIRLS AND BOYS LOVE GOD ABOVE

--God=Love= if only Prince knew what love really meant

What's your take on Anna Stesia?

What's your take on my interpretation of Anna Stesia?

Thank you in advance for responding to this thread!!

Are you fucking kidding?!! Interpret it all you want... Go ahead.

ComeHereLetMeCutYourHair said:

I think this interpretation is deep and thoughtful and brilliant. I cannot imagine anything more empty, cold and sad than waking up next to a stranger most of the days of your life, having 'romantic' and 'sexually intimate' or intense experiences with someone you actually have no interest in seeing again or, worst of all, feeling really connected to someone you think you can and want to love deeply....and throwing them over for a mindless fuck with someone just passing through. This aspect of his life sounds like a living hell.

Bodhitheblackdog said:

I think this interpretation is deep and thoughtful and brilliant. I cannot imagine anything more empty, cold and sad than waking up next to a stranger most of the days of your life, having 'romantic' and 'sexually intimate' or intense experiences with someone you actually have no interest in seeing again or, worst of all, feeling really connected to someone you think you can and want to love deeply....and throwing them over for a mindless fuck with someone just passing through. This aspect of his life sounds like a living hell.

thank you Blackdog!! I think Prince unfortunately was a tortured soul... He had many trespasses against him when he was young which carved the way for his addictions... it's understandable..

I appreciate your post!!!

ComeHereLetMeCutYourHair said:

Bodhitheblackdog said:

I think this interpretation is deep and thoughtful and brilliant. I cannot imagine anything more empty, cold and sad than waking up next to a stranger most of the days of your life, having 'romantic' and 'sexually intimate' or intense experiences with someone you actually have no interest in seeing again or, worst of all, feeling really connected to someone you think you can and want to love deeply....and throwing them over for a mindless fuck with someone just passing through. This aspect of his life sounds like a living hell.

thank you Blackdog!! I think Prince unfortunately was a tortured soul... He had many trespasses against him when he was young which carved the way for his addictions... it's understandable..

I appreciate your post!!!

We are all Tortured SOuls..

Difference between us and Prince is He admited it

Lovejunky said:

ComeHereLetMeCutYourHair said:

thank you Blackdog!! I think Prince unfortunately was a tortured soul... He had many trespasses against him when he was young which carved the way for his addictions... it's understandable..

I appreciate your post!!!

We are all Tortured SOuls..

Difference between us and Prince is He admited it

when or how did he admit it? In a song? What lyrics make you think that? In concert he's declared numerous times he's a sex addict... never heard him come out and declare he had problems with drugs... in fact the opposite...

Thank you for your post!!

ComeHereLetMeCutYourHair said:

Lovejunky said:

We are all Tortured SOuls..

Difference between us and Prince is He admited it

when or how did he admit it? In a song? What lyrics make you think that? In concert he's declared numerous times he's a sex addict... never heard him come out and declare he had problems with drugs... in fact the opposite...

Thank you for your post!!

not talking about Drugs,

Talking about the innate feeling of Pain we all carry due to feeling seperate from the father.

Prince yearned in a very real and sincere way,for GoD....the one consistant throughout his entire life..

sorry you cant hear that in his Music....

This song is about salvation vs. damnation in whatever form you intend it to mean for your self. Poetic license. That's the beauty of the song...

"Love is God; God is Love; Girls and Boys love God Above..." Pretty simple, really.

While I can't agree with your theory. It is good to hear alternate ideas. I think the sex addiction interpretation is narrow. I don't think Gregory is the personification of the sex addiction, particularly because it was allegedly in the mix for his first borns name.

I think this song is the center piece in the concept of this album. It has to do with Lovesexy that to quote another part of the album is when "you fall in love with not a boy or a girl, but with the heavens above." Note how this links nicely to the "you'll take any one boy or girl" in the lyrics

Anna Stesia, is not a literal drug. It is a longing for the spiritual connection to take away the pain, and to have a spiritual conscience, that takes away the negative thoughts, relationships, and desires.

It is Prince's expression of faith that God can enable him to unite his Gemini dichotomy. As he says later on in my Name is Prince "I've got two sides, and they're both friends." or when still searching in When Doves Cry "Maybe i'm like my father too bold, maybe i'm like my mother, she's never satisfied.

I use the state he is in, in Lady Cab Driver in contrast. He is seeking secular love to remove his demons- insecurities, and his spiritual unease. That Prince is lost and desperate as the supplied lyrics show clearly (IMHO)



Lady cab driver - Can U take me 4 a ride?
Don't know where I'm goin' 'cuz I don't know where I've been
So just put your foot on the gas - let's drive
Lady - don't ask questions
Promise I'll tell U no lies
Trouble winds r blowin', I'm growin' cold
Get me outta here - I feel I'm gonna die

Lady cab driver, roll up your window fast
Lately trouble winds r blowin' hard, and I don't know if I can last

Lady - I'm so lonely
I know that's not the way 2 be
Don't want isolation, but the air it makes me cold
Drive it, baby, drive it, drive this demon out of me
Take me 2 your mansion
Honey, let's go everywhere
Help me girl I'm drownin', mass confusion in my head
Will U accept my tears 2 pay the fare?

Lady cab driver, roll up your wndow fast
Lately trouble winds r blowin' hard, and I don't know if I can last

I always figured this song was about his "black night" where he supposedly took an E and then cancelled The Black Album and this was one of his many ways to reconcile with the decision to do an E, which gave birth to the "dark" LP because he was pissed off with himself for the album which conflicted with his deep religion and relationship with God & Jesus - and Lovesexy was born.